Traders’ body CAIT and mobile retailers’ association AIMRA have urged the Competition Commission of India to suspend e-commerce giants Flipkart and Amazon, accusing them of predatory pricing and deep discounting. They also claim that these practices foster grey markets, leading to tax evasion. AIMRA also called for the suspension of Chinese mobile brands like OnePlus and Poco for alleged collusion.
These practices, in turn, are creating a grey market of mobile phones, causing losses to the exchequer “as players in the grey market evade taxes”, they said on Tuesday.
The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) and All India Mobile Retailers’ Association (AIMRA), in collaboration, have listed out their demands on the impact of e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart on India’s retail ecosystem.
AIMRA Founder and Chairman Kailash Lakhyani demanded CCI to suspend Chinese mobile phone companies OnePlus, iQOO, and Poco for allegedly colluding with e-commerce players.
The white paper alleged violations of foreign direct investment (FDI) policy and other regulatory frameworks by Flipkart and Amazon.
BJP MP and CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said, “They (Flipkart and Amazon) deeply indulge in predatory pricing, deep discounting, loss funding, etc. Whatever investment they are bringing that is being used to burn cash, to fund losses they accrue during their operations in India.”
Addressing the AIMRA summit, Khandelwal said, “It looks that there is a cartel between e-commerce players, the brands, and the banks. They are hand-in-gloves to capture the market by various means but mainline retailers will not allow this to happen. We are not against e-commerce but we want a level-playing field and fair means of doing business.”
A unanimous demand was raised, “CCI should immediately suspend operations of Amazon and Flipkart and the allied companies which are helping both these companies to captivate the market”.
The e-commerce giants, however, did not reply to these allegations.
“Customers are not being able to buy mobile phones that come at heavily discounted price, as these are purchased by the grey market. These (grey market purchases) can easily be tracked with the help of IMEI… It is also a loss for the government as grey market players evade taxes,” he said.
Lakhyani also added that operation of these Chinese brands such as OnePlus, Poco, and iQOO are engaging in trading activities in India without any addition to the Indian economy and hence should be suspended for at least 1-2 years.